Hi everybody! :-)I feel a little uncomfortable bugging you with a question on my first post in this forum. However it's important, because there is a lot of money involved. ;-)I'm looking for a new system to run FS2004. Mostly I fly airliners such as PMDG 737NG, 747, LevelD767 on high detailed airports like those by FlyTampa and the Aerosoft German Airports. Also I'd like to install an AI-traffic software on my new system. Now, I've chosen two configurations for this system, one based on an AMD CPU and another one on an Intel P4 CPU and I'm wondering which might be faster to run FS2004. AMD System:CPU:AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 0.09

Personally I'd go with the AMD setup.AMD Athlon64 CPU's are all around stronger processors. If your doing alot of video/music encoding & every second counts, then the Intel processors may be a little better.For FS AMD is going to be faster.Everything else in the system looks decent enough. If you have a few $$ lying around you may consider upgrading to a 6800Ultra from the GT, but its no biggie.

Hi Jens,A few pointers here:CPU: agreed on AMD better than Intel.Video card: I don't know what prices are like where you are but I'd avoid the 6800GT or the 6800 Ultra if I were you simply because there's already a new generation out. If possible, I'd try to squeeze in the 7800GT. If you can't fit the 7800GT into your budget, then perhaps you could consider the ATI options, such as the new X1800XL? Or the older X850XT? Anyhow, I'm not a big fan of the NVIDIA 6x00 series. I'd go for either the newer NVIDIA cards or the ATI offerings.RAM: I'd try to go for brand-name if possible. I noticed you were going to go with GEIL if you chose Intel. Perhaps you would consider GEIL for your AMD system as well? Corsair, OCZ, Kingston and Patriot are also good choices.Motherboard: If you can afford the spare 20 Euros or so, I'd go for a nForce4 SLI motherboard. It gives you the option later on to add a second video card for better performance. If your budget is that tight, then the nForce4 Ultra will do just fine - it's the same as the SLI variant but without SLI anyway.I can't stress enough the importance of a good PSU! Very important given your video card and processor choice! Make sure it's sufficient wattage and more importantly, a good brand name such as Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Antec, OCZ, Zalman etc.Hope this helps.Edwin

Hi! Thank you both for your input!I've changed the configuration based on your suggestions and this is the result: CPU:AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 0.09

Not sure about MDT ram, but as long as your not planning on overclocking you should be fine. Good to see the upgraded motherboard & graphics card fit within your budget :)As for your old PSU, Enermax is a good brand. I'd think it would do you for now. If you find your new system isn't running stable, you may need a heftier PSU. But give the Enermax a try first & see how it goes.Btw, here's my setup just for reference:OS =..........WinXP PROPSU =.........Thermaltake PurePower 560WMotherboard =.ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Rev. 1.02Processor =...AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+ (939 pin)Memory =......OCZ PC3200 (DDR400Mhz) 1024Mb x 2 (2Gb) Rev. 2 "EL Platinum" (2-3-2-5)Video Card =..BFG GF7800GTX OCSATA HD =.....Maxtor 80Gb x2 (160Gb Total)IDE HD =......Maxtor 160Gb x2 (320Gb Total)DVD ROM =.....Pioneer 16xDVD-R/RW =....Pioneer DVR-108Floppy =......Fujitsu 1.44 floppy/7-in-1 media card readerSound Card =.. SB Audigy 4 ProMonitor =.....Samsung SyncMaster 213T LCD 21.3"Case =........Cooler Master CAV-T01 w/ Window

Hi Jens,Wow, I'm glad everything fit into your budget. Congrats! The 7800GT should be much better of a card; the A8N-SLI won't be much of a difference but it's just nice to know you have the option of more upgrades down the road.With your PSU, the wattage and brand name are good. Just make sure it has a 24-pin ATX connector. My old Zalman (~1.5 years) had a 20-pin so when I upgraded to my current Athlon64 X2 rig, I needed to get a new PSU.And oh, with the RAM, make sure you get two 512MB DIMMs so that you can take advantage of dual channel. This may be obvious to you but I was a little concerned when I read 1GB DIMM in your specs.Hope this helps and enjoy your new rig!Edwin

Make sure you go with at least a 500W power supply,most new ones are already 24 pins but make sure its not 20.Do some checking around for video card tests for those ASUS cards. I didn't think they were all that fast,do some looking around first at Anandtech or Toms Hardware.David

A few years back, there were relatively significant differences between video card manufacturers (not the graphics chip makers i.e. NVIDIA or ATI, but the card manufacturers like ASUS, Gigabyte, eVGA, XFX, BFG etc.) partly because each card would be slightly different and partly because the drivers would be different. Nowadays, practically all card manufacturers follow the reference design (sometimes down to the design of the cooler) and the responsibility of making drivers has fallen on the chip maker (i.e. ATI and NVIDIA) so the users go to the chip maker directly for the reference drivers. So IMHO, a 7800GTX card from manufacturer A is basically the same (sometimes EXACTLY the same) as a 7800GTX card from manufacturer B. The differences are usually in 1) the price; 2) the software bundle; and 3) the box/manual.The only exception to this would of course, be stock overclocked cards such as those from eVGA, BFG and XFX. Each maker may pick a different overclock so of course, with those, one card may be faster than the other. But with stock frequency cards, I tend to just get the lowest priced one because IMHO, they're all the same anyway. There are always rumors floating around that one maker may have chips that can be overclocked higher than another maker's. But I take those rumors with a grain of salt... whether a chip is overclockable depends, in my mind, on luck.As for ASUS specifically, I haven't heard anything negative about its video cards but I have never used one personally. My gripe about its video cards is that they're usually more expensive than others.Hope this helps.Edwin